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31 December 2015

I didn't intend to have a section on Identical Twins (Part 6), one trans, one
cis, but noticed that there were several in the news this year. Of course Mark
and Clair Farley in the documentary Red Without
Blue, 2007, are identical twins, as are Lavern Cox and M Lamar. There is
dispute about Candis Cayne and her twin Dylan McDaniel: Wikipedia and the Daily
Mail state that they are fraternal twins, but other sources claim that they are
identical. I remember heated discussion some years back claiming that cis-trans
identical twins could not happen, but now it is well documented, and
consequently any simplistic claims based on DNA alone (certainly if without
epigenetics) are no longer on.

PFOX
(parents and friends of ex-gays) has been running a claim that “Identical Twins
Prove No One Born Gay”. To this end they put up a billboard
in Virginia showing what was claimed to be two identical twins, one gay, one
not. However it was found out that both photographs were of the same South
African model, Kyle Roux, who is gay and not a twin, and understandably objected
to his image being used in this way. However even if they had featured a real
gay-straight twin couple
a) their argument is as lacking in logic as those who
argue that DNA does oblige homosexuality or transgender
b) if it were a choice,
it is a perfectly legitimate choice
c) PFOX is associated with churches, and
there is something very wrong with religion if it is something inherited and not
chosen.

Best of luck to the trans-cast film Happy Birthday Marsha. It does
seem like sour grapes to point out that Marsha's birthday was 24 August, not
late June.

There have been a lot of trans actors getting parts recently and there is a
feel that change is about to happen, and that cis-cast trans roles as in
Stonewall (2015), The Danish Girl, About Ray,
Transparent, will soon be artifacts of the past. Here is a list of recent
trans actors, with apologies to others that I have missed in quickly putting
this together:

A few comments on Stonewall (2015):

a) Stonewall (1995) included two actual transsexuals: Candis Cayne and
Allyson Allanta, as well as drag performer Sherry Vine. In this respect the new
film went backwards.
b) even the major gay male roles were played by straight actors.
c) the plot was so similar to the 1995 film as to give the impression that
there is only one story to be told about Stonewall. It is sad that the producers
thought that.

A few comments on The Danish Girl.

a) A cis actor in the main trans part and Rebecca Root in a small role as
'the nurse' where the character does not even get a name. If we go back to 1987
we find La ley del
deseo/Law of Desire by Pedro Almodóvar with cis actress Carmen Maura
playing the lead trans role, Tina Quintera, and trans actress Bibí Andersen (now
known as Bibíana
Manuela Fernández Chica) played a smaller cis role, Ada. So have we moved
forward at all?
b) It has been suggested that Rebecca Root was unsuitable for the part in
that the character is male for the first part of the film. I couldn't find a
clear statement on this. Of course any trans actor playing a trans character in
transition would be expected to play the before and after. Laverne Cox is
fortunate in having a twin brother to play the before scenes. We of course
expect a trans actor to be an actor first and foremost and to be able to play
both genders just as much as cis actors do.
c) It has been said that no trans actor has the reputation to attract the
necessary investment. Somehow when a film is about a child, they cast a
relatively unknown actor as the child and do not run into that particular
problem.

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About Zagria

I have a social science degree. I spent several years in the 70s doing Gay Lib counselling, and moved on to organizing trans groups. I was rejected by the Clarke Institute (now CAMH) in the mid 1980s, probably because I do not match either of their stereotypes, but was accepted by Russel Reid on our first meeting in late 1987, and had surgery from James Dalrymple some months later. I have mainly worked as an IT consultant. I have been with the same husband for 45 years.